


Man's Best Friend

by LerxstInSpace



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adashi Gift Exchange 2019, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dogs, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:33:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21958921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LerxstInSpace/pseuds/LerxstInSpace
Summary: The guy must be new to the neighborhood. Shiro thinks he’d remember seeing that dog at the park, if nothing else--some kind of Heinz 57 mix with a healthy portion of golden retriever and a missing eye.He thinks he’d definitely remember the guy on the other end of the dog’s leash. Tall and kind of skinny, with glasses and shaggy hair and gray eyes and--He realizes he’s staring just as Kuro decides he wants to make friends with the new dog right now.[Adashi Gift Exchange 2019 present for transguykeith]
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 61





	Man's Best Friend

The guy must be new to the neighborhood. Shiro thinks he’d remember seeing that dog at the park, if nothing else--some kind of Heinz 57 mix with a healthy portion of golden retriever and a missing eye. 

He thinks he’d definitely remember the guy on the other end of the dog’s leash. Tall and kind of skinny, with glasses and shaggy hair and gray eyes and--

He realizes he’s staring just as Kuro decides he wants to make friends with the new dog _right now._

Before Shiro can say anything, before he can tighten his grip on the leash, he’s off. And when that much solid muscle in the shape of a black lab decides he wants to run, well... there’s not much Shiro can do about that other than chase after him.

“Kuro, _no!”_ Of course he knows his dog isn’t going to pick a fight, but the stranger and his dog might not know that. “I’m sorry!” he yells to the stranger as he chases after his happy mass of black fur and wagging tail and leash trailing along behind, “he won’t hurt you, he won’t hurt your dog, he just--”

And then the stranger’s dog gets that look on his face, that look that says his new friend proximity alerts are going off, and _he_ yanks his human’s leash right out of his hand and takes off running to meet Kuro in the middle.

“H-hey!” Much like Shiro, there’s little the guy can do about his dog deciding he doesn’t really need to be let off his leash to get this meet-and-greet going. “Falcon! _No!_ Get your buns back here, son! You know better than that!”

In spite of the chaos, in spite of what he’s sure is about to turn into utter chaos with two big dogs chasing each other around the dog park before they can be de-leashed, Shiro gets the warmest, fuzziest feeling in his stomach when he hears the guy’s voice. _He calls his dog “son,”_ he thinks, and later he’ll look back on this and realize that this, this right here, is the moment he started falling for the guy.

Kuro, bless him, finally remembers he’s supposed to wait to get his leash unclipped before he just goes full ham running around with his friends, even the new ones, and he plops his butt down on the ground and tosses Shiro a big soulful brown-eyed glance over his shoulder-- _sorry, Dad_. The other dog seems to get the hint. He does not sit and his entire back end is wagging, but he at least lets his human catch up to unclip his leash.

“I’m so sorry,” Shiro says to the guy one more time as he takes hold of Kuro’s harness and de-leashes him. “He doesn’t usually do that, I swear.”

“No, no, it’s fine, neither does--okay, buddy.” The guy detaches Falcon’s leash from his harness and gives him a pat on his wagging butt. “There you go! You’re free! Go nuts!” With that permission given Falcon takes off after Kuro, both of them leaping and barking and peeing on things and smelling things other dogs have peed on and doing all the delightful things dogs do with their dog friends. “Wow. They’re really hitting it off, huh?”

There are more than enough benches in the dog park for both of them to have their own, to sit and watch their dogs with a socially acceptable amount of distance between them. But when Shiro starts to head for one of them, the guy just sort of follows along, and Shiro is okay with that. 

He’s okay with it when the guy sits down _right_ next to him, too.

Still... they’re sitting awfully close and hell, Shiro isn’t even sure the guy would be interested (later, he will think back on this bit of uncertainty and ask himself if he could have possibly been any more oblivious). So he puts out a perfectly friendly hand to be shaken. “I’m Shiro, by the way.”

The guy takes his hand, holds it maybe a little more firmly than he needs to, for maybe a little longer than he needs to, and Shiro doesn’t mind that at all. “Adam.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen you here before,” Shiro says. “New in town?”

“Oh, no, it’s just... the park we were going to before isn’t really working for us anymore.” 

Oof. Shiro has a bad feeling he knows why. He’s heard enough warnings from his little brother, about a couple of people who shouldn’t be bringing their dogs to any of the parks (and who, in his expert opinion, probably shouldn’t own dogs at all) gravitating towards one particular one. As if to confirm that, Adam makes a face. “People keep bringing these really aggressive little anklebiters in, and Falcon’s short an eye so... yeah. I take it you’re a regular here?”

“Yeah, I just live like--” Shiro inclines his head in the general direction of his apartment building. “A couple blocks that way. And this one’s close, and Kuro likes it.” He watches Kuro chase Falcon around, the two of them weaving through the little stand of trees on the other side of the dog park.

“Yeah. I think Falcon’s enjoying this.” Adam gets kind of a weird little smile on his face. “Kind of a nice change of scenery for me too.”

Shiro hears a noise in his head like a needle being dragged across a record.

Is he... is he being hit on, here? Is this flirting? Is that what this is? It’s been a long time and Shiro is out of practice at spotting it, sure, but... this sure feels like flirting. 

He tries to sneak a peek at Adam’s left hand without looking like that’s what he’s doing. It’s just a quick glance, but it’s enough for Shiro to confirm the absence of a wedding ring. Okay. He’s probably at least technically single so... he could be flirting? Would it be safe to flirt back a little? It’s not his physical safety Shiro is worried about, of course not, for a number of reasons. No... it’s damage to his dignity he’s worried about here. He’s been wrong before. He’d hate to be wrong now.

“So,” Adam goes on, like he hasn’t noticed Shiro sitting there sweating bullets over whether or not he’s being flirted with and whether or not he should maybe try flirting back, “‘Kuro,’ huh? That’s an interesting name.”

“Eh...” Shiro sputters out a little laugh and scratches nervously at the back of his head. “Not really, if you speak Japanese.” He watches Kuro stop in his tracks, bark once to get Falcon’s attention, and then turn around and take off running so _he_ can be chased around. “It just means ‘black.’ Real original for a lab, huh?”

“Hey, at least you put a twist on it?” Adam laughs.

“I guess. What about Falcon? Is he named after an actual bird, or--”

“The jet. I, uh... used to fly them.”

Shiro isn’t quite as good at reading human body language as he is at reading canine body language, but the way Adam kind of tenses up at that topic is hard to miss, and he decides not to press it further. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to--”

“No, it’s okay.” Adam seems to unwind a little. “It’s just... kind of a long story. I’m a science teacher now. Middle school. How about you?”

“Oh, uh--” Shiro lets out a little chuckle. “I work at the zoo.”

Adam raises an eyebrow, and there’s that weird little smile again. “Customers or co-workers? Or--God. Wait. You mean _the literal zoo._ ”

“I mean the literal zoo,” Shiro laughs, and Adam tries so very hard to hide the adorable flush of maroon in his cheeks. “It’s okay! I get that a lot. No, I’m a vet tech. Usually I work with the big cats. Mostly the lions.”

“So... you’ve got a soft spot for animals in general, then?” 

“Yeah.” Shiro watches Kuro and Falcon roll around in the fallen leaves, tails wagging at maximum velocity, tongues hanging out of their mouths. “I just... I like helping them. The big ones, especially. The ones you don’t ever really think of as getting hurt or being scared or...” He stops there, and shakes his head. “Sorry. That’s kind of getting into depressing territory, huh?”

“Not really.” There’s still a little bit of red in Adam’s cheeks, but that weird little smile grows a little wider and a little warmer and Shiro feels his insides melt. “I believe you can learn a lot about a person from the way they treat animals.”

Adam is definitely flirting with him. 

_Oh God,_ Shiro thinks, _please let me not make a complete ass of myself here_. He hopes like hell that he’s putting forth the outward appearance of composure because his internal monologue has broken down into something like running around in circles and screaming in panic. “Yeah. I... I do too.”

He’s not just feeding Adam a line there. He really does believe that. He watches Falcon playing with Kuro, silently praises Kuro for being so careful about Falcon’s blind side. Shiro doesn’t feel like this is the time to press for details, but he suspects Falcon is a rescue too. And if his puppyhood was anything like Kuro’s... no, definitely not the time to press for details but it tells Shiro a lot about what kind of man Adam is. It definitely tells him enough to make him want to know more. But then he notices where the sun is, and--crap, have they really been out here this long? He doesn’t draw attention to it. There’s nowhere he needs to be, other than home to feed Kuro his dinner and he doesn’t want this to be over. Not yet.

But Adam notices the change in the light too, and he checks his watch and grimaces a little. “Ugh. We should probably get going. I’ve got to get some grading done tonight.” He whistles to Falcon, and Falcon comes running with Kuro close behind.

Falcon doesn’t squirm or complain when Adam hooks the leash back on, though he does spend an awful lot of time sniffing Kuro. Shiro reaches down and scritches one of Falcon’s fluffy ears. “It was, uh...” He clears his throat. “It was really nice to meet you.”

Adam pauses, just for a moment. Like he’s thinking about how to answer that. 

“Yeah,” he finally says, with a radiant smile that makes Shiro weak in the knees. “You too. I think we’ll be back. See you.”

_I think we’ll be back,_ he said.

Shiro stammers out a response he hopes like hell is at least partially coherent, and he watches Adam and Falcon walk away, out of the dog park, to a sensible little car in the lot across the street.

Kuro boofs softly at Shiro’s knee. It’s a strange-sounding little bark. Like he’s got something in his--

Shiro looks down and sees his dog holding a packet of treats in his mouth, treats that are not his usual brand or flavor. He does the math. 

_Crap._

“H-hey!” Shiro waves after Adam’s sensible little car, hoping to flag the guy down before he gets away. “You dropped--”

It’s no use. He’s too far away, and Adam can’t hear or see him, and then his sensible little car turns left at the next light and that’s it. He’s gone. 

Shiro stands there for a while watching in the direction Adam’s car went, waiting to see if he comes back for his treats. But he doesn’t. He probably hasn’t even noticed them missing yet.

And Shiro has no way to get hold of him.

* * *

“Dinner’s ready, buddy.”

As if Kuro didn’t already know. He’s been sitting there, ever so patiently, staring and licking his chops the whole time Shiro’s been putting it together. On Kuro’s menu tonight: organic lamb, veggie, and brown rice kibble with a healthy scoop of reconstituted freeze-dried raw chicken, a spoonful of fish oil, and the first of his three weekly raw eggs mixed in. And, just for garnish, a few treats sprinkled on top. 

Shiro sets the bowl down and watches Kuro dig in, and he gets his own dinner out of the microwave.

On Shiro’s menu tonight: frozen chicken alfredo with broccoli.

_My dog eats better than I do,_ he thinks as he scoops his pasta and vegetables out of their microwaveable tray and into a bowl. One of these days he’s going to have to suck it up and learn how to cook something other than frozen dinners and instant ramen. Today is not that day. Tomorrow doesn’t look good either.

Shiro sits down on the couch with his dinner and turns on the TV, and he laughs a little at the sloppy sounds of a very big dog enjoying his dinner. He’s barely halfway through his own when Kuro comes padding into the living room. He does not so much jump onto the couch as just... take a big step up. He doesn’t pester Shiro for a bite of his pasta. He’s never been a big fan of people food, and that’s probably just as well. After the feast he just had he’d probably be disappointed with this. 

Kuro waits until Shiro is done with his dinner, until he’s taken the bowl to the sink and rinsed Kuro’s dish out (not that it really needs it, there’s not so much as a smear of yolk left in it), until he comes back and sits down on the couch again. Then he scoots over, plops his head down in Shiro’s lap, and huffs out a deep contented dog sigh.

Shiro pats his belly and scratches behind his ears. “Did you have a good day?” he asks. “Yeah. Me too.” He lets out a sigh of his own, a little less contented. “I should have asked him for his number.”

And there it is. There’s the thing Shiro already knows he’s going to spend the rest of his life kicking himself for if Adam never brings his dog to that park again. How hard is it to ask a guy for his phone number? Especially a guy who had been sitting there checking him out the whole time their dogs were chasing each other around. And their dogs love each other already, that had to be a sign... right?

But no. Adam is gone, and all Shiro has to remember him by is--

Wait.

_Wait._

Shiro pats Kuro’s hip. “Lemme up a sec, buddy.” Kuro obliges with a soft huff. He perks up when Shiro picks up his coat and goes into the pocket for the packet of treats Adam dropped. 

Shiro knows this brand. These aren’t the kind of treats one can find at the grocery store or even at Petco or whatever. No. These are _special._ These are doggy gourmet food and there are only two stores in town Shiro knows of where one could buy them. 

And lucky for him, he’s got connections at one of them.

* * *

There’s a little store kind of hidden in one of those office park things on the edge of town. It’s sort of a health food store for pets, and it’s where Shiro gets all of Kuro’s chow. Shiro doesn’t know how it stays in business, being tucked away like it is--no, no, he knows exactly how it stays in business. Lots of people in this city who love their pets very much and might just feel a little need to compensate for their lack of a yard of their own with the finest organic pet food money can buy. And the finest organic pet food money can buy doesn’t come cheap.

It’s probably a good thing Shiro gets the friends-and-family discount.

The bell on the door jingles as Shiro walks in. His brother’s behemoth of a dog is chilling behind the counter keeping an eye on the door, as he does, and he perks up and lets out a soft “borf?” when Shiro comes in. 

“Hey, big guy.” Shiro reaches over the counter to scritch that majestically floofy head. Nobody is sure exactly what Kosmo is, but they have reason to believe there’s a significant amount of honest-to-God wolf DNA in the mix. “Where’s your dad?”

“Right here.” Keith emerges from the back room with a cardboard box of something that must be lighter than it looks, judging by the lack of a thud when he drops it. “Hey, Shiro.”

“Hey.” Shiro gives his little brother a hug and ruffles his hair. “Staying busy?”

“Trying to.” Keith whips that ridiculous pocketknife out, deftly slices that box open, and returns the knife to his pocket. The box is full of packets of what appears to be foofy artisanal catnip. “How about you? Did you just come to say hi, or is Kuro running out of something?”

“Uh... a little of both?” And that much is true. The kibble bin is running a little low, it’s not like Shiro is _just_ coming in to ask his brother to do something that’s maybe a little borderline stalkery, he has legitimate business here. Still, he can’t help feeling just a little creepy about his ulterior motives. “So, uh...” Shiro goes to the dog treat display, finds a package of the kind Adam dropped, and puts it on the counter. “I need these too but like... can I just pay for them and have you hang on to them for now?”

“Uh... random and weird, but okay?” Keith gives him a funny look. “I thought Kuro didn’t like those.”

“They’re not for him. They’re for, uh... dumb question incoming.”

“There are no dumb questions.”

“Would you remember a specific person who bought these?”

“...there is one dumb question. Shiro, what the hell.”

“I mean, I did warn you it was a--”

“Sure. Let me just check my customer database.” Keith heaves the biggest bag of Kuro’s preferred kibble up onto the counter next to the treats. “And cross-reference it with the security camera footage we only keep for like two days. Oh, and maybe I’ll put in a call with my guy at the CIA.”

“Stop! _Stop!_ I’m already dead!” All right. No harm in letting Keith have some fun with this, but... ouch. “Okay, how about this. Guy named Adam, a little taller than me, kind of skinny, shaggy brown hair, glasses, might have had a one-eyed golden mix with him--”

“He’s cute, isn’t he.”

“Heh, yeah, he’s adorable, he’s got the golden build but kinda fluffy ears, maybe he’s got some spaniel--”

_“I meant the guy, Shiro.”_

“Oh.” Shiro clears his throat again. Is it warm in here? It seems warm in here. “...yeah. He’s... he’s cute.”

“Uh huh.” Keith just grins, slow and a little wicked. “Yeah, I wouldn’t like... swear to it under oath or anything but he sounds familiar. And I guess if he comes in again, you want me to give him those treats. And your number.” He grabs a bag of freeze-dried raw chicken pellets and sets it on the counter next to the bag of kibble. Shiro starts to protest. He didn’t ask for that. He doesn’t need that. He’s still got plenty of it. 

He even opens his mouth and gets “I don’t--” out before Keith gives him the hairy eye. “...yes. Please,” he says instead. 

Keith considers that for a moment. “Sure,” he says. “I mean. When’s the last time you went on an actual date?”

“Last month!”

“You’re not seriously counting the reptile house guy, are you?”

“...last year. You’re actually going to do this for me.”

“Sure,” Keith says again as he rings up Shiro’s stuff. “Hey, it’s not like I’m not getting anything out of this.” He doesn’t bother telling Shiro the total. Shiro just hands over his debit card. He knows better than to ask.

* * *

It’s been two weeks. 

Shiro still takes Kuro to the same dog park every evening and even two or three times a day when he’s off work. Kuro plays with the other dogs just like he always does, but it seems like his heart’s not quite in it. Shiro thinks he misses Falcon.

_...or maybe I’m just projecting,_ he thinks grimly as he watches Kuro roll around in the leaves with that shar-pei from down the block. 

Maybe Adam hasn’t noticed the missing treats yet. Maybe he’s got little stashes of them all over the place and he just hasn’t noticed one half-full pack going MIA.

Or maybe he got them from the other fancy pet food store.

Or maybe he did get them from Keith’s store and Keith just forgot to give him that pack and his number.

...or maybe he did get them from Keith’s store and Keith _did_ remember to give him that pack and his number and he thought _wow what a creeper how about we not ever cross paths with him again._

Shiro is starting to wish he hadn’t done that. What the hell was he thinking? Even if Keith does see Adam, even if he does give Adam his number... the man is there to buy food for his dog, not to get hit on by some rando he met one (1) time in a dog park, via said rando’s kid brother no less.

Still... it’s kind of hard not to be a little disappointed every time he takes Kuro down to the dog park and doesn’t see Adam there.

It’s a crisp Tuesday evening, and it’s starting to get darker and chillier than Shiro would like, and he’s just decided it’s time to round Kuro up and head home when his phone pings in his pocket.

He pulls it out not expecting anything notable. Maybe his boss asking him to cover for someone that called in, maybe Keith, maybe just random junk from one of the apps. 

It’s a text. From an unknown number.

_Falcon says thanks for the treats. Can I pay you back w/dinner?_

* * *

All this time, Shiro has been living right down the street from an enthusiastically dog-friendly cafe and he never even knew. Of course the dogs have to stay out on the patio because health code, which means their people have to stay out on the patio with them. So maybe Shiro dressed a little nicer for this than he really needed to. He actually ironed multiple pieces of clothing for this. And he gave Kuro a bath. Kuro put up with it, with his usual long-suffering pitiful Bath Glare, but somehow Shiro got the feeling that he knew something was up, that they were going somewhere special, that they were meeting someone special.

And that’s exactly what they’re doing.

Adam has already snagged them a choice table. He looks like _he_ ironed multiple pieces of clothing and gave his dog a bath, too. Falcon’s ears are extra fluffy and he smells like dog shampoo. He’s even dressed up a little, with a bright Hawaiian-print bandanna around his neck.

A lot of the “dog-friendly” places in town have maybe one or two items for the dogs, usually a variation on the theme of whipped cream in a cup with a dog biscuit on the side. They might cook up an unseasoned boneless chicken breast or hamburger patty if you’re lucky. But this place has a whole actual dog menu with all kinds of actual food on it along with the standard puppuccino and fresh-baked biscuits. The chicken stew Shiro gets for Kuro looks more appetizing than some of the stuff he’s nuked for himself. 

The human food is pretty decent too. But that’s not what Shiro came here for. He’s here for the company. Is this a date? An actual date? He’s not sure if it counts as that, not yet, but--oh, who is he kidding? It’s definitely a date, and he’s fine with that.

He’d be fine with another one, he thinks. 

It goes well. Well enough that when they’ve finished their dinner and settled up (and Adam paid, he did not have to do that, he absolutely did not have to do that on a teacher's salary, and Shiro decides then and there that he’s getting the next one), instead of going their separate ways for the night, they head to the park down the block. Not their dog park--a people park, but it has a nice walking trail and some pretty scenery, and the evening is chilly enough to give them a convenient excuse to walk a little closer than they probably really need to.

Kuro and Falcon seem to be enjoying it, too. Mostly they just walk shoulder to shoulder, Kuro covering Falcon’s blind side. But every once in a while they get a little frisky, and they keep sort of tangling their leashes up with each other, and Shiro and Adam keep having to stop to sort them out. Then a few minutes later they do it again. And again. 

Later, Shiro will think he should have seen this coming. 

But he doesn’t, and when Kuro leans over and playfully nips Falcon on the butt, and when Falcon yaps and nips Kuro on the neck, and when one of them takes off running as far as his leash will allow with the other close behind... well, there’s only so far they can run on their leashes and only so far they can chase each other and--

“H-hey! Falcon!” 

“Kuro, what the hell--”

The dogs know what they did. Oh yes. Shiro will think back on this later and see that big goofy doggy grin on Kuro’s face and he will be sure their dogs knew _exactly_ what they were doing when they decided to chase each other around their humans and, in the process, tie them both together face-to-face from the knees down. And once they’ve done that, Kuro and Falcon both just sort of sit down to appreciate their handiwork.

“I--oh God, I’m so sorry,” Adam sputters, and then he seems to notice that his free hand just sort of went to Shiro’s waist. “I, um...”

“No, it’s--it’s--oh man, this is--” Shiro tries to find somewhere to put _his_ free hand and settles on Adam’s shoulder. He feels something warm on the backs of his legs and realizes that Kuro is leaning up against him. He looks down and sees Falcon doing the same thing to Adam. “It’s--” _Awkward,_ he wants to say, but... is it? 

Is it really?

It doesn’t feel awkward. It should. He should be mortified. But he’s not.

Suddenly, untangling himself and Adam from the leashes doesn’t seem like such a pressing issue anymore.

It’s their first date. Shiro is taking a risk here, a big one, and he knows it. But it seems like a shame to waste an opportunity as perfect as this one. So he curls that free hand around the back of Adam’s neck and gently pulls him in for a kiss. Adam doesn’t resist, and that hand on Shiro’s waist slides around to rest on the small of his back. 

This feels right. Adam’s hand on his back, his hand on Adam’s cheek, Adam’s lips warm and soft against his own. Everything about this feels good and amazing and _right_ and Shiro never wants to let him go.

“Mm--” Adam pulls back with a soft laugh and drops his forehead onto Shiro’s shoulder. “I’d like to keep doing this but, uh... I think they’re cutting my circulation off?”

Shiro wiggles his toes and grimaces a little at the pins and needles. Well... _almost_ everything about this feels right. They should probably untangle themselves. Like... now. 

But first, Shiro reaches into his coat pocket. It’s a little tricky negotiating the zip closure with one hand but he works the pack open, fishes out one of Kuro’s treats, and holds it down behind his back.

_Good boy,_ he thinks as Kuro gently nips it out of his fingers.

**Author's Note:**

> merr crismus, enjoy your doggo dads!


End file.
